Blogs

For big data insights, improve three areas of your IT infrastructure

Dion Harris, Senior Manager of Product Marketing –

Big data is more than just a buzz phrase. Big data analytics are bringing a whole new level of insight to industries spanning a number of verticals, including finance, logistics, sports and retail, to name a few. In the past decade, social analytics have been added to the big data mix, providing additional insights into consumer behavior and preferences. For those of us in the tech industry, the most exciting part of the big data movement is yet to come, as there are still so many potential insights — and therefore benefits — that business will eventually be able to derive from the data. As our compute capacity and the ability to process and analyze big data expands, the possibilities are immeasurable.

The drawback to this development is that businesses that deal in big data are experiencing a strain on their IT infrastructure due to the increased volume, especially within IT environments that are built around legacy systems and are therefore lacking the capacity to handle the increased workloads in an always-on world. With the massive influx of information, data-centric companies have instituted heightened performance requirements as, in many cases, their business decisions depend on the insights the data yields. For example, stock exchange trading platforms rely upon reporting and reacting to trade values in under a second; even just nanoseconds of delay could result in a disadvantage. To ensure the receipt and processing of data in a timely fashion, the underlying infrastructure must be performant

It is important to note that not every business has the same analytics challenge; however, if a vendor can provide technology solutions that enable big data analysis, it is a valuable asset to an organization. Vendors can assist organizations that rely upon big data analysis by improving three areas of an infrastructure system: availability, performance and serviceability.

Availability

To gain the most benefit from the big data explosion, organizations need to minimize downtime and maximize system or application availability.

Performance

Performance of an organization’s systems, workloads and applications in the desired fashion must continue despite increases in network traffic. To ensure consistent performance, vendors can provide greater bandwidths to organizations to prevent system clogs and bottlenecks as a result of the higher data volume.

Serviceability

No system runs perfectly without any service; however, with the advent of big data and the need for constant high data processing, an easily serviceable application, device or system will minimize disruptions.

While these three aspects of a strong IT infrastructure are not new, big data has amplified their importance. A comprehensive performance management system can assist IT professionals in anticipating performance issues and preventing them before they occur, making the accumulation and processing of big data a positive way that a business gains insight into its audience, its industry and what lies ahead.